MSI GT72 Dominator Pro Review: GTX 980M Reigns Supreme
by Jarred Walton on November 11, 2014 8:00 AM ESTMSI GT72 Dominator Pro Battery Life
Battery life is one area where the GT72 isn’t going to be the best notebook on the planet, but hopefully you knew that going into the review. Seriously: when was the last time a true gaming notebook could also last all day between charging? Anyway, the GT72 as I mentioned earlier is interesting in that MSI has decided to forego Optimus support and instead use muxes with a software switch to enable/disable the discrete GPU (with a reboot required for the change to take effect). We’ve tested with both the GTX 980M as well as the HD 4600, and of course turning off the dedicated GPU improves battery life… but perhaps not quite as much as you might at first guess.
First things first, the MSI GT72 with the GTX 980M enabled managed to last as long in our Light battery test as the MSI GS60 with Optimus support. I’m not sure it’s praise of the GT72 so much as a further indictment of the poor battery optimizations on the GS60, and frankly the GE60 and GT70 aren’t winning any awards for battery life either. What’s really important however is that MSI seems to have made more of an effort to provide decent battery life with the new GT72, and when we switch to the Intel HD 4600 we even manage to reach nearly six hours of mobility. This is all with the same capacity battery as the GT70, though I should note that at one point MSI had a BIOS update on the GTX 780M variant of the GT70 that achieved around six hours of battery life as well.
Switching over to estimations of power draw, in the Light test the GT72 uses ~14.8W (give or take) with the HD 4600 compared to ~22.1W with the GTX 980M, so having the discrete GPU active appears to result in a constant power drain of around 7W. That’s as much as some Ultrabooks use in light workloads, but that’s the price you pay for high performance (and 8GB of GDDR5 memory). The Heavy testing basically confirms those numbers: power draw with the HD 4600 active ends up being ~18.7W while turning on the GTX 980M the GT72 uses ~29.2W. (The Heavy workload involves H.264 video playback, so the GPU is going to be more active.)
We already did an in-depth look at BatteryBoost on the GT72, so I’m not going to get into it too much here. Gaming without BatteryBoost will generally mean less than an hour of battery life, while dropping to a 30FPS target will in some cases allow you to break two hours of mobility. The trick of course is that by targeting 30FPS you’re effectively turning the GTX 980M into something a lot more like a GT 750M in terms of performance, but it’s nice to have options. Also note that with the battery being behind the chassis cover on the bottom, there’s no way to swap batteries to extend your mobile time, so carrying the AC adapter with you is pretty much a requirement.
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IgenIgen - Thursday, November 13, 2014 - link
Radical overhaul: No. Incremental: Yes, at least part of the way. This years model has lost around 1 kg and is 0.8 cm slimmer, so there is that.Subjectively it was already a pretty good design, so I for one am happy that they did not re-invent it completely, and settled for shaving off a couple of pounds.
My point with the IPS panel still stands.
dwade123 - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
Quite stupid to pay that much just to sign petition for console ports.imaheadcase - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
Does something like this exist in non laptop form you can plug just monitor/kb/mouse into and works?I've yet to see someone offer a SFF case that has all that stuff in it, minus monitor/kb/mouse.
Richdog - Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - link
Every time I see someone comparing a laptop to a desktop, I just want to slap my forehead at how mind-numbingly dense these people are.if I wanted a desktop I would buy a desktop. However, I would like osmething with desktop-esque power that I can actually move around my house when the situation demands it, hell, something I can take on family holidays, or to a friends, etc etc etc.
Anyone who cannot see the point of that, or at least the basic concept behind it, seriously needs to go for an IQ test, and check that they reach the minimum levels required to use a computer.
Personally I just bought an ASUS G751 with 4GB 980M, beautiful IPS screen and a 4710HQ for $1980. All I need to do now is add an SSD for $200 and I then have an awesome and most importantly portable gaming machine that holds its own with the average high-end desktop PC.... for $2200.
IMO that is a hell of a good deal, and a worthwhile investment for the next few years. :)
inperfectdarkness - Monday, December 1, 2014 - link
This is the crux for me. I would get so very little enjoyment out of a desktop rig--because I'm always on the go.Now for the cost ($3,000) this one is a little pricey for my blood--especially with the piss-poor 1080p screen (IPS or TN wouldn't matter, imho). I do think it's great that MSI has revamped their design...but case design is a very small factor for me. What I really need is high-performance, high-rez display, and just enough features to keep me from complaining.
I got my GT60 3k IPS edition back in January...and I STILL insit that it's one of the best gaming laptops in the market--if not THE best in the segment. 3k IPS screen, 16GB ram, 128 SSD for the oS & 1TB HDD, and a 780mGTX. And that's ~$2100 of laptop. $2200 even if you count switching to an intel Wi-Fi card--which I did after I got it. I could easily have configured it to $3,000 with most of the SSD/CPU upgrades from this one...but it would still have that IPS panel.
It's not a knock on MSI--it's an indictment of the market in general. I ordered mine the day it became available for widespread sale in the USA--THAT'S how long I'd been waiting for something better than 1080p in 15" size.
russblevins76 - Monday, December 22, 2014 - link
Think I searched this old email.russblevins6@gmail.com or rcblevins56milan666 - Sunday, April 19, 2015 - link
Guys, is there anyone who actually bought this machine and been using it for a while? I am seriously considering to buy either this particular model or the G751JY from ASUS.I have been thoroughly searched the net, read blogs, reviews about both of them and to be honest after seeing what people experienced with the ASUS (buggy USB ports, black screen boots, dead pixels, faulty keyboard and their quality assurance in general) I am shitting bricks and afraid to go for one.
So, after all, I am about to buy a GT72 2QE with the very similar specifications, but before I invest ~2000 euros to a laptop that might serves me in the next let's say 2 years, I am about to ask you.
Is there anybody who has the same laptop? What are your observations? Have you experienced something erroneous, like recurrring black screen at start or any mechanical issues? And finally, what are your experiences with its good old TN panel?
Many thanks in advance, have a great day!
Cheers,
M